4 For
thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod
of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
5 For
every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in
blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
6 For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:4-6)
I had a brainwave recently
about what v5 means. Previously I thought that bit about “with burning and fuel
of fire” referred to the second coming of Christ and how Christ would fight for
the righteous and burn the wicked.
And I still think that is a good way to look at it, but I started to see another
interpretation for it that fit better with the context of Christ’s mortal life
and ministry.
Verse 5 starts by pointing
out how every battle they knew involved noise and blood. Then there is a “but”
that tells us a contrast, something different is coming. So we are to think of
a different kind of battle that doesn’t involve noise and blood. And I think we’re
meant to immediately guess Isaiah means spiritual battles.
But how does “burning and
fuel of fire” refer to spiritual battles? I suspect the burning part is talking
about the fire of the Holy Ghost, and the fuel of fire refers to the people.
The battle is a struggle to spark a fire of the Holy Ghost in people. All of
this was definitely part of Christ’s mission, to convert with His teaching and
testimony.
And the message, of course,
is about the coming of the Messiah and His power to save from sin, to break the
yoke of Satan’s burden of sin that is laid on each of us and save from the
punishing rod of his oppressive guilt. (This is referred to with imagery in
verse 4.)
This ties verse 4 and 5
together to the message of “unto us a child is born” in verse 6.
I love it when I discover
these kinds of things! Yaay
Isaiah!
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